It’s a hangout for the vagrants and downtown drug pushers. It’s the scene of stabbings, shootings, violent crime, and piles of human waste.
Now, the mayor and the Anchorage Assembly want voters in April to approve an $8.5 million bond measure, which property taxpayers will have to pay for, and the biggest part of the expenditure is to make Town Square Park a prettier drug hang out, with no plan to make it safer.
Proposition 3 on the April 1 ballot is no joke. It asks voters to approve:
“For the purpose of renovating and rehabilitating trails and parks, and making improvements at various parks and recreational facilities in the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Service Area, as provided in AO 2025‑10, shall Anchorage borrow money and issue up to $8,250,000 in principal amount of general obligation bonds and increase the municipal tax cap by an annual amount not to exceed $245,000 to pay for associated annual operations and maintenance costs?”
For this bond, it’s estimated to cost property owners $4 a year for an average home, plus an extra $2-plus-change per year to maintain and operate the park. The debt would be retired by real and personal property tax collected within the Anchorage Parks and Recreation Service Area, without cost to properties in Chugiak, Eagle River, Girdwood, and others outside the service area.
Voters in Anchorage have a history of approving such seemingly small increments year after year.
The bond has something for everyone but the biggest expenditure by far is Town Square Park, at $2.9 million.
Whether making Town Square Park a prettier place for violent vagrants will improve downtown is a question voters will need to ask themselves. Mayor Suzanne LaFrance says it will. Assembly members from downtown Chris Constant and Daniel Holland say it will make the open space more attractive for people to use.
Town Square Park was created in 1984 through a citizen led voter initiative, intended to be “an oasis from the urban environment of Alaska’s largest city.” It has evolved into a gathering place for only those who dare.
Proposition 3 will be before voters in the ballot packet that will be mailed in about one month. The election ends on April Fools Day.
Isn’t Girdwood , Eagle River , Chugiak and all the others part of The Municpality? I pay they pay !! Vote NO!
I live in Chugiak and will vote no. Always have. I will vote no for everything until they cleanup the bum camps and hold them accountable.
Are voters ready to lift the tax cap…? Speaking for myself, no, no, NO.
I despise the muni’s practice of including ongoing operational costs to its capital improvement bond propositions. Stop it!
This city is devolving into a hole in the ground the assembly throws our money into, with zero regard for how hard many of us work to earn it.
Instead of taxing people to repair, they should have had the police patrol to “kick” the “rousters”out. And keep them out of downtown..All they do is destroy everything..I’m sick and tired of the seeing the destruction these people do AND YOU DO have the control of keeping these people out of downtown and midtown, when they destroy everything..That’s a part of the muni’s job..
At the Steward Highway and Tudor all the trees were cut down—to clear out the homeless camp there. Now it’s bare ugliness. Shortly after, all the trees were cut down at 36th and the Seward Highway. I’m tried of paying for nice landscaping (at the 36th and Seward Highway) for it to be trashed by homeless and ultimately cut down. LaFrance–you said you could do better. I guess NOT. I say NO to any beautification of park or public spaces until the city gets a handle on these lawless and fire starting homeless.
Does anyone remember when Bare Back Berkowitz (BBB) cut down trees in the Town Square Park to make it safer? How much good did that do? Fundamentally, the town can do whatever it wants to the landscape of the park, but it will improve nothing until we roust the criminal element that lurks there. Has anyone attending a show at the PAC not cringed when walking the gauntlet of inebriates that loiters there incessantly? This proposed bond is simply throwing money to the wind. It is a people problem, not a landscape problem.
If memory serves Mayor Berkowitz removed the fountain in Town Square park to improve public safety in the “crime ridden public space” (as reported by KTUU back then). So they made it ugly to get rid of crime and now they want to beautify it to again get rid of crime….
Walking through there is scary even during the day.
What we really need Mayor LaFrance is for APD to enforce the ordinances against loitering, public intoxication and indecency on the books, as you said Donald it is a people problem.
Of course we will approve this as it abuts the tea shop owned by Mrs Mark Begich.
A no brainer.
She also got heated sidewalks for her business in a street remodel about 15 years ago.
(which I imagine don’t work anymore)
I’m wonder how many “families” control ANC?
Yup Anchorage voted for LaFrance, They will vote for this so the Assembly can stuff another pocket.
I used to be a frequent user of bike trails and dog parks but not anymore. After encountering a drugged person laying in the middle of the trail, calling in numerous homeless camps, being accosted and almost getting high off the fumes at a certain location at Univ. Lake park, I have had to find other areas to walk the dog. I have long been afraid to walk through Town Square, how very sad that we can’t feel safe using our fabulous trail system. So, no more money for any of it as long as the current homeless/druggie situation exists. Best way to clean up trails is to rid them of misusers and make them safe for the rest of us.
Build more prisons, or expand the existing ones, and fill them up.,
Tear it down. They let it be destroyed, why should we be forced to fix it. When do the signs go up saying Anchorage is closed for business and now is Fort Homeless. Can’t do anything with Davis Park. Yea right lets have some more fires scarecrow.
I’m all in favor of cleaning up Town Square. My suggestion is a beat officer patrolling the park regularly and randomly throughout each day and enforcing EVERY law he sees being broken. Vagrancy, intoxication, littering, jaywalking er, strike that, pan handling, etc. etc. etc. That will clean up the park.
A Deranged Proclamation from John Redcorn, Sovereign Overlord of Town Square Park: Smite Proposition 3 with Your Ballot!
Hear ye, hear ye, you taxpaying serfs of Anchorage!
I am John Redcorn, undisputed bare-knuckle brawling god of Town Square Park, supreme commander of a shopping cart armada (thirteen strong, including the one with the squeaky wheel I stole from a Jimbo), and the crowned lunatic of this sacred concrete wasteland.
My empire reeks of freedom—where vagrants wrestle feral squirrels for scraps, drug barons hawk their wares from hollowed-out park benches, and the human feces pyramids rise higher than Denali on a clear day. But now, the tyrannical Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and her gaggle of Assembly retards dare to defile my dominion with their cursed $8.25 million bond scheme, Proposition 3, set to bamboozle you fools on April 1st.
I say: CAST IT INTO THE VOID!
This infernal plot—funded by your pitiful property taxes—vomits $2.9 million to “beautify” my kingdom. Beautify?! They want to install eyeball-searing lights brighter than a UFO invasion, rip out my labyrinth of stabbing shrubs, and—prepare to clutch your pearls—they already axed the legendary shag tree by Kobuk Tea, where I once traded a live pigeon for three hits of something that made me see in plaid for a week!
Every time these clowns meddle, my glorious open-air drug emporium gets worse—last time, they turned my best overdose nook into a butterfly garden guarded by a demonic sprinkler. Now they’re back with pruning shears and promises of “safety,” like I didn’t just choke out One-Eyed Carl with a stale baguette to prove who rules here!
Safety? Ha! They mean safety for latte-sipping invaders who’ll flee when my cart cavalry charges. They’ll hike your taxes—$1.66 per $100,000 of your overpriced shacks—just to pave my battleground for tai chi grannies and yapping Chihuahuas. I won’t stand for it! I’ve trained a flock of seagulls to dive-bomb intruders, and my royal decree is scrawled in ketchup on a dumpster lid: NO MORE CITY MEDDLING! This park isn’t broken—it’s a masterpiece of mayhem, a utopia where I reign supreme atop my throne of warped picnic tables.
So, rise, my downtrodden minions! On April 1st, vote NO on Proposition 3! Let the shag tree stand as a hairy beacon of debauchery, let the pushers peddle their potions in peace, and let my shopping cart fleet multiply until it blocks out the sun! The only improvement I need is a trebuchet to launch my enemies into the municipal offices—and I’ll build that from spare needles and spite. Reject this bond, or I’ll unleash my squirrel militia on your cul-de-sacs!
John Redcorn, Cart-Warden of Chaos, High Priest of the Poop Pyramids, Lord Reagent of Town Square Park
*Please re-enter your library credentials to continue using the Loussac Library Internet Terminal.*
LOL!!
Bravo! Bravo! The trebuchet is a nice touch!
Rest assured this taxpayer will vote “No”!
I further express the hope, we can soon offer your cart carrying armada free accommodations at the local hoosegow, for a chance to proclaim your grievances to the nearest city employee!
Already at the Loussac? Stay for the assembly meeting and give the honorable Mr. Constant and Voland and the mayor your insights….
No.
Vote NO on ALL bonds, Anchorage.
Answer … “NO”
Clean-up the homelessness problem, ship them outside to Seattle, Portland, SF and LA.
Absolutely, the drug dealers and mentally handicap need a nice place to gether. The city assembly and mayor have unlimited funds. The 1/3 of voters that elected them won’t be paying for it. The other 2/3 who didn’t bother to vote will be writing the checks.
What’s wrong with the town square that needs fixing exactly?
It has beautiful hand painted art and culturally diverse inhabitants. Ever try to have a conversation with a drunk and/or drugged out (insert diverse gender label here) screaming obscenities at the empty space around them? Well, you need to go no further than the Anchorage Town Square for a rich and fulfilling experience.
Those who feel uncomfortable with public inebriation and craziness are just closed minded bigots, you chuds.
Tax cap? That’s so yesterday.
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Only $8.5M …kickbacks and cost overruns extra, throw in a couple of LaFrance’s half-million dollar porta potties plus sole-source poop-pumping contracts, Team players’ll get this thing over the $10M goal line in no time.
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Sure it’ll “pass”. Assembly wants it, person who counts votes works for the Assembly, voter rolls are corrupted, anyone can stick a thumb drive of unknown purpose into vote-counting gear while it counts votes, amateur handwriting “experts” curate ballots, unelected officials toss ballots and disenfranchise voters for any reason, observers have no idea what they’re observing, plus there’s the wonder of mail-in ballots with no credible chain of custody
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…all of which means voters don’t have to worry about lifting anything. Government will do it for them, no?
Bond packages like this, is one of the reasons I sold my home in Anchorage. The prolific rise in unchecked homeless camps made the decision easier.
They should build a greenhouse terrarium for the entire block. Full of water features and lush greenery like Mann Leiser’s greenhouse.
Why should we pay for it when it’s her fault it became this way. VOTE NO
There is no end of other people’s money a leftist will spend in order to make themselves look benevolent and caring.
We already had to pay to fix town square, lower the mounds, cut down trees, etc., under the previous bond in order to make it more safe, lower crime,etc. Didn’t work. Why do we have to pay for the same thing again as a beautification project? Definition of insanity brought to you by the incompetent mayor and assembly. Why can’t they ever come up with different, better ideas that don’t just involve taking more of your money and spending it?
Stop the theft from homeowners. I’m paying $900 per month. Yes that’s not per year… per month. If it were cut in half it would still be theft. Time to criminalize property tax.
Great finish on the article, HA!!!
The election ends on April Fools Day.
No! No! No!
Sadly this proposition will pass, property taxes will go up, the mess will get worse….and we will do it all again next time. Such is Anchorage.
Is one of those $500,000 bathrooms included in this project? I thought we voted those down?